Say hello to the surprise comedy hit of the year. At first glance of the title, everything about The Duff— which stands for, classily enough, Designated Ugly Fat Friend — suggested lame, unfunny and even disastrous. I certainly didn’t expect very much at all. The only thing I was banking on was its lead actress, Mae read more

I haven’t done any posts on fantasy writing tips for a while – but I have a few lined up, beginning with how to name things in your fantasy world. [digg=http://digg.com/arts_culture/The_Art_of_Fantasy_Names] I’m the first to admit that I absolutely suck at coming up with original and intriguing names. I don’t just mean names for characters, but read more

Note: Huge shoutout to Sydney artist Hubert Widjaya for providing the wonderful artwork for this post. See below for a casual chat we had about the film following my review. I’m not ordinarily a fan of musicals, especially ones that look like they are riding the wave of a popular trend to make a quick read more

I’m usually not into hyperbole, but last Sunday was one of the greatest days of my life. Yes, that’s right — I sat courtside for the Indiana Pacers/Houston Rockets game at Taipei Arena on Oct. 13. Allow me to put that in perspective. It’s not easy being a Pacers fan (because there are so few read more

Mos Burger and Mr Donut!

Two of my favourite places in Japan are the chains Mos Burger (fast food restaurant) and Mr Donut (…donuts).

And in Taiwan, they have both!

Mos Burger

Mos Burger is one of the few places that actually has a burger after which the restaurant is named. That’s right. At Mos Burger you can order a Mos Burger.

But the best thing at Mos Burger is the Wafu Fried Chicken. Not only is it tasty, it is surprisingly un-oily. You can push your serviette into it and there’d be no oil stain! And check out the clever Japanese holding wrapper. You don’t even have to get your hands dirty.

Mr Donut

Mr Donut has awesome donuts. The best thing about them is that they’re not overly sweet, which is rare for donuts. And they come in a wide variety of flavours and styles – whether it’s chocolate or strawberry glaze or cream-filled centres or these weird ball-type donuts, Mr Donut has it all.